Bushfire Crisis in Australia and Insufficient Climate Change Policy

Caroline Weiss

Storms and Wildfires in Australia

Australia’s bushfires began in September 2019―an early fire season―and continue to burn in most regions, with the exception of storms in the southeast. According to the New South Wales Rural Fire Service, the magnitude of the fires is unparalleled, as they have killed at least 29 people and over a billion animals, driven many species to probable extinction, burned over 46 million acres, and ruined more than 2,200 homes. Some regions of Australia have suffered from having the worst air quality in the world; this poor air quality has set off smoke alarms in the business district and has been classified as greater than “hazardous levels” for over 30 days (Figure 1). In an attempt to manage the fires, military resources comparable to those deployed during WWII have been utilized. The devastating and widely reported fires have since yielded to thunderstorms in southeastern Australia. Storms characterized by large hailstones, some the size of baseballs, are raining down upon Sydney, Canberra, and Melbourne, damaging roofs and vehicles. Skies once clouded with smoke now feature severe storms involving wind reaching 70 miles per hour and flash floods, highlighting the new world of extremes we live in.

Figure 1: Air Quality Index in Australia during bushfire seasons, 2014-2019

Climate Change and Wildfires

Climate change explains both the intensification of Australia’s current wildfire season and California’s record wildfire season in 2018. As stated by Kevin Trenberth, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, “…global warming directly intensifies wildfires by drying out soil and vegetation, creating more fuel to burn farther and faster.” This effect disproportionately affects regions susceptible to drought globally, including parts of the U.S. such as California. How does a warmer world exacerbate the wildfire problem in places like California? Warmer temperatures near the equator are enlarging Hadley cell circulation, which is caused by hot air from the equator rising and moving toward the poles, where it cools and creates high pressure zones of dry air—particularly around 30° N or S Latitude. This process is worsening California’s drought; its coastal high-pressure ridge is redirecting storms to the north and reducing annual precipitation, particularly in the spring and fall, thus extending the wildfire season. Similarly, Hadley cell circulation caused the formation of the subtropical ridge in Australia, which reduces rainfall in the fall and winter, again producing more dry fuel for fires.

Government Response to Wildfire Crisis

Regarding climate policies, Australia ranks 56th out of 61 countries because of the recently elected government’s worsening conduct on both the national and international levels. In 2014, the Liberal Party became the first to revoke a carbon tax. Today, in spite of worsening, record bushfires, Liberal Party officials still claim that stronger climate policies are unnecessary. Within the last year, the Australian government disregarded the advice of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to quickly decrease reliance on fossil fuels, stopped funding the Green Climate Fund (GCF), and continued to increase its emissions (although the government claims otherwise). Although 60% of the Australian electorate believe that the government ought to take more action to combat global warming in a November Guardian Essential poll, the Liberal Party won office in May 2019 and will likely remain in power at least until the 2022 election. 

Australia is a top exporter of coal and gas and has no plans to discontinue this practice; new proposals have been drafted to open more coal mines and ports in a huge expansion of the fossil fuel industry (Figures 2 and 3). From 2005-2030, Australia’s emissions from mining fossil fuels are predicted to double. If the Paris Accord’s climate goals—to restrict global temperature rise to “well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels”— are surpassed, Australia’s ongoing record-breaking temperatures will become standard. Currently, the average temperature in Australia is 107 °F; if such high temperatures persist for over two months, as they have during this year’s bushfire season, enduring destruction can result. Furthermore, if all countries mirrored Australia’s current “highly insufficient” policy path, warming could exceed 3°C and even reach 4°C. Despite the climate-friendly initiative in place on the state/territory level and in the business sector, the necessary rapid transition to zero emissions and reliance on renewable energy is unlikely without  commitment on the federal level.

Figure 2: Australian energy consumption by fuel type, 1977-2018

Figure 3: Australian energy exports by fuel type, 1977-2018

Posted: January 31, 2020

Works Cited

"Australia." Climate Action Tracker, 2 Dec. 2019, climateactiontracker.org/countries/australia/pledges-and-targets/.

Australian Energy Update 2019. Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy, Sept. 2019, www.energy.gov.au/sites/default/files/australian_energy_statistics_2019_....

"Bushfire Season Graph." ABC News, 2 Dec. 2019, www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-03/bushfire-season-graph/11759808. Chart.

Nuccitelli, Dana. "How Climate Change Influenced Australia's Unprecedented Fires." Yale Climate Connections, 17 Jan. 2020, www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/01/how-climate-change-influenced-aus....

Sinclair, Peter. "Australia's Heat and Bushfires Are Signs of Fundamental Shifts in Its Climate." Yale Climate Connections, 17 Jan. 2020, www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/01/australias-heat-and-bushfires-are....

Tarabay, Jamie. "Australia's Wild Weather: First Fires, Now Baseball-Size Hail." The New York Times, New York Times Company, 20 Jan. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/01/20/world/australia/weather-hail-sydney-canberra....